The Poles (Polish: Polacy, pronounced [p?'lat?s?]; singular masculine: Polak, singular feminine: Polka), commonly referred to as the Polish people, are a nation and West Slavicethnic group native to Poland in Central Europe who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of self-declared Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of an overall population of 38,538,000 (based on the 2011 census),[2] of whom 36,522,000 declared Polish alone.[3][4][5]

The concept which has become known as the Piast Idea, the chief proponent of which was Jan Ludwik Pop?awski, is based on the statement that the Piast homeland was inhabited by so-called "native" aboriginal Slavs and Slavonic Poles since time immemorial and only later was "infiltrated" by "alien" Celts, Germans, Baltic peoples and others. After 1945 the so-called "autochthonous" or "aboriginal" school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland and a considerable degree of popular support. According to this view, the Lusatian Culture which archaeologists have identified between the Oder and the Vistula in the early Iron Age, is said to be Slavonic; all non-Slavonic tribes and peoples recorded in the area at various points in ancient times are dismissed as "migrants" and "visitors". In contrast, the critics of this theory, such as Marija Gimbutas, regard it as an unproved hypothesis and for them the date and origin of the westward migration of the Slavs is largely uncharted; the Slavonic connections of the Lusatian Culture are entirely imaginary; and the presence of an ethnically mixed and constantly changing collection of peoples on the Middle European Plain is taken for granted.[45]

Statistics

Polish people are the sixth largest national group in the European Union.[46] Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a total number of around 60 million people worldwide (with roughly 21 million living outside of Poland, many of whom are not of Polish ethnicity, but Polish nationals).[11] There are almost 38 million Poles in Poland alone. There are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including (Germany), and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, northern and eastern Lithuania, western Ukraine, and western Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova. There is also a Polish minority in Russia which includes indigenous Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and after World War II; the total number of Poles in what was the former Soviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million.[47]

The map depicts countries by number of citizens who reported Polish ancestry (based on sources in this article)

Poland

More than 1 million

More than 500 thousand

More than 100 thousand

The term "Polonia" is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Brazil, and Canada. France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century. In the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule.

A recent large migration of Poles took place following Poland's accession to the European Union and opening of the EU's labor market; with an approximate number of 2 million, primarily young, Poles taking up jobs abroad.[48] It is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work freely throughout the EU and not just in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden where they have had full working rights since Poland's EU accession in 2004. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a total number of 120,000, making Poles the largest immigrant group in Norway.

Over time, Polish culture has been greatly influenced by its ties with the Germanic, Hungarian,
and Latinate world and other ethnic groups and minorities living in Poland.[50] The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad (especially Italy) and open to cultural and artistic trends popular in other European countries. Owing to this central location, the Poles came very early into contact with both civilizations - eastern and western, and as a result developed economically, culturally, and politically. A German general Helmut Carl von Moltke, in his Poland. A historical sketch (1885), stated that "Poland of the fifteenth century was one of the most civilised states of Europe."

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity, experiencing severe crises, especially during World War II and in the following years. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art, with all its complex nuances.[50]

Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their mother tongue. Elsewhere, ethnic Poles constitute large minorities in (Germany), northern Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Hungary, northeast Lithuania and western Belarus and Ukraine. Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County (26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results) and is found elsewhere in northeastern and western Lithuania. In Ukraine it is most common in the western Lviv and Volyn oblast (provinces), while in western Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in the Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border.

The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the border changes and population transfers that followed World War II. Poles resettled in the "Recovered Territories" in the west and north. Some Poles remained in the previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR, resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled or emigrated from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. Meanwhile, the flight and expulsion of Germans, as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and resettlement of Ukrainians within Poland, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity.

Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner throughout most of Poland, though numerous languages and dialects coexist alongside the standard Polish language. The most common dialects in Poland are Silesian, spoken in Upper Silesia, and Kashubian, widely spoken in the north.

Science and technology

Education has been of prime interest to Poland since the early 12th century. The catalog of the library of the Cathedral Chapter in Kraków dating from 1110 shows that Polish scholars already then had access to literature from all over Europe. In 1364 King Casimir III the Great founded the Kraków Academy, which would become Jagiellonian University, one of the great universities of Europe. The Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics.[51]

Kazimierz Funk (1884-1967), whose name is commonly anglicized as "Casimir Funk", was a Polish biochemist, generally credited with being among the first to formulate (in 1912) the concept of vitamins, which he called "vital amines" or "vitamines".

Today Poland has over 100 institutions of post-secondary education - technical, medical, economic, as well as 500 universities - located in major cities such as Gda?sk, Kraków, Wroc?aw, Lublin, ?ód?, Pozna?, Rzeszów and Warsaw. They employ over 61,000 scientists and scholars. Another 300 research-and-development institutes are home to some 10,000 researchers. There are also a number of smaller laboratories. Altogether, these institutions support some 91,000 scientists and scholars.

Music

The origin of Polish music can be traced as far back as the 13th century, from which manuscripts have been found in Stary S?cz, containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of Bogurodzica, may also date back to this period. The first known notable composer, however, Miko?aj z Radomia, lived in the 15th century.

During the 16th century, mostly two musical groups--both based in Kraków and belonging to the King and Archbishop of Wawel--led the rapid innovation of Polish music. Composers writing during this period include Wac?aw of Szamotu?y, Miko?aj Ziele?ski, and Miko?aj Gomó?ka. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków from about the age of five, became one of the most famous lutenists at the court of Sigismund III, and not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe, but blended them with native folk music.[59]

In addition, a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of Galatea (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina, which she had written for Prince W?adys?aw three years earlier when he was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. When W?adys?aw became king (as W?adys?aw IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi[60] in the royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by W?adys?aw.

The late 17th century and the 18th century saw Poland in sociopolitical decline, which hindered the development of music. Some composers (such as Jan Stefani and Maciej Kamie?ski) attempted to create a Polish opera; others imitated foreign composers such as Haydn and Mozart.

Polish folk music was collected in the 19th century by Oskar Kolberg, as part of a wave of Polish national revival.[61] With the coming of the world wars and then the Communist state, folk traditions were oppressed or subsumed into state-approved folk ensembles.[62] The most famous of the state ensembles are Mazowsze and ?l?sk, both of which still perform. Though these bands had a regional touch to their output, the overall sound was a homogenized mixture of Polish styles. There were more authentic state-supported groups, such as S?owianki, but the Communist sanitized image of folk music made the whole field seem unhip to young audiences, and many traditions dwindled rapidly.

Polish dance music, especially the mazurka and polonaise, were popularized by Frédéric Chopin, and they soon spread across Europe and elsewhere.[62] These are triple time dances, while five-beat forms are more common in the northeast and duple-time dances like the krakowiak come from the south. The polonaise comes from the French word for Polish to identify its origin among the Polish aristocracy and nobility, who had adapted the dance from a slower walking dance called chodzony.[62] The polonaise then re-entered the lower-class musical life, and became an integral part of Polish music.

Middle Ages

Almost nothing remains of Polish literature prior to the country's Christianization in 966. Poland's pagan inhabitants certainly possessed an oral literature extending to Slavic songs, legends and beliefs, but early Christian writers did not deem it worthy of mention in the obligatory Latin, and so it has perished.[63]

The first recorded sentence in the Polish language reads: "Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest") - a paraphrase of the Latin "Sine, ut ego etiam molam." The work, in which this phrase appeared, reflects the culture of early Poland. The sentence was written within the Latin language chronicle Liber fundationis from between 1269 and 1273, a history of the Cistercian monastery in Henryków, Silesia. It was recorded by an abbot known simply as Piotr (Peter), referring to an event almost a hundred years earlier. The sentence was supposedly uttered by a Bohemian settler, Bogwal ("Bogwalus Boemus"), a subject of Boles?aw the Tall, expressing compassion for his own wife who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone."[64] Most notable early medieval Polish works in Latin and the Old Polish language include the oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in the Polish language entitled the Holy Cross Sermons, as well as the earliest Polish-language Bible of Queen Zofia and the Chronicle of Janko of Czarnków from the 14th century, not to mention the Pu?awy Psalter.[63]

Baroque

Polish Baroque literature[65] (1620-1764) was influenced by the popularization of Jesuit secondary schools, which offered an education based on Latinclassics as part of a preparation for a career in politics. The study of poetry required practical skill in writing both Latin and Polish poems, and radically increased the numbers of poets and versifiers countrywide. Some exceptional writers grew up as well in the soil of humanistic education: Piotr Kochanowski (1566-1620) produced a translation of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; poet laureateMaciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski became known throughout Europe, for his Latin writings, as Horatius christianus ("the Christian Horace"); Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621-1693), epicurean courtier and diplomat, extolled in his sophisticated poems the value of earthly delights; and Wac?aw Potocki (1621-96), the most productive writer of the Polish Baroque, united typical Polish szlachta (nobility) views with deeper reflections and existential experiences.

Romanticism

Due to the three successive Partitions carried out by three adjacent empires--ending the existence of the sovereign Polish state in 1795--Polish Romanticism, unlike Romanticism elsewhere in Europe, was largely a movement for independence from foreign occupation, and expressed the ideals and traditional way of life of the Polish people. The period of Romanticism in Poland ended with the Russian Empire's suppression of the January 1863 Uprising, culminating in public executions and deportations to Siberia.[68]

In the second Romantic sub-period, after the November 1830 Uprising, many Polish Romantics worked abroad, driven from Poland by the occupying powers. Their work became dominated by the aspiration to regain their country's lost sovereignty. Elements of mysticism became more prominent. Also, the concept of the Three Bards (trzej wieszcze) developed. The wieszcz functioned as spiritual leader to the suppressed people. The most notable poet of the Three Bards, so recognized in both Polish Romantic sub-periods, was Adam Mickiewicz. The other two national bards were Juliusz S?owacki and Zygmunt Krasi?ski.

Restored independence (1918-39)

Literature of the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939) encompasses a short, though exceptionally dynamic period in Polish literary consciousness. The socio-political reality has changed radically with Poland's return to independence. In large part, derivative of these changes was the collective and unobstructed development of programs for artists and writers. New avant-garde trends had emerged. The period, spanning just twenty years, was full of notable individualities who saw themselves as exponents of changing European civilization, including Tuwim, Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Mi?osz, D?browska and Na?kowska (PAL).

Theatre and cinema

At present, the Polish theatre actor possibly best-known outside the country is Andrzej Seweryn, who in the years 1984-1988 was a member of the international group formed by Peter Brook to work on the staging of the Mahabharata, and since 1993 has been linked with the Comédie Française. The most revered actor of the second half of the twentieth century in Poland is generally considered to be Tadeusz ?omnicki, who died in 1992 of a heart attack while rehearsing King Lear.

According to Poland's Constitution freedom of religion is ensured to everyone. It also allows for national and ethnic minorities to have the right to establish educational and cultural institutions, institutions designed to protect religious identity, as well as to participate in the resolution of matters connected with their cultural identity.

Religious organizations in the Republic of Poland can register their institution with the Ministry of Interior and Administration creating a record of churches and other religious organizations who operate under separate Polish laws. This registration is not necessary; however, it is beneficial when it comes to serving the freedom of religious practice laws.

Exonyms

Entrance of the Polish delegation to Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 1790. Poland to the Turks and Arabic nations was known as Lahest?n (Persian: ), derived from Lechia, the original name of Poland, and Poles were referred to as Lehs.

Among exonyms for "Pole", not native to the Polish people or language, is (lyakh), used in East Slavic languages. Today the word Lachy ("Poles") is used in Belarusian, Ukrainian (but now considered offensive and replaced by the neutral , polyak), and Russian. Foreign exonyms also include: LithuanianLenkai; HungarianLengyelek; TurkishLeh; Armenian: Lehastan; and Persian: ‎ (Lahest?n).

Ethnography

Central Poles

czycanie live between Greater Poland and Mazovia, and are an intermediate group, originally closer to Greater Poles but with significant Mazur influences. Sieradzanie on the other hand, are surrounded by Greater Poland, Lesser Poland and Silesia, and have been under strong influences of all three provinces. They lost much of their original distinctness. The main city in this region is ?ód?, but it originated during the Industrial Revolution, being just a small town before that.

The capital of Poland, Warsaw, is located in the land of Central Mazurs. However, as any large city it has always been a melting pot of people from all regions of Poland and foreigners from abroad. It is home to the largest Jewish community in Poland, as well as the cultural centre of Polish Karaims. Citizens of Warsaw are called Varsovians. In the Early Middle Ages, P?ock was the main city in Mazovia. Along the eastern border of Poland, between Podlasie and Lubelszczyzna, we can find some people who identify as Poleshuks.[79] In Suwalszczyzna and Podlasie, we can find dispersed communities of Polish Tatars[80] and Starovers,[81] as well as settlements of Lithuanian and Belarusian minorities.

Northern Poles

Groups intermediate between Greater Poles and Mazurs (but closer to Greater Poles), are Che?mniacy and Dobrzyniacy (who live in the lands of Che?mno and Dobrzy?), as well as Lubawiacy (in the land of Lubawa). Another intermediate group, but closer to Mazurs, are Catholic Warmiaks in the East Prussian region of Warmia. From the Early Middle Ages onwards, Pomerania was under strong Polish (especially Greater Polish and Cuiavian) influences. From the mixture of Kashubians and Greater Poles, emerged an ethnographic group called Borowiacy Tucholscy, who live in the Tuchola Forest region, between Tuchola, Koronowo, ?wiecie and Starogard. Borowiacy are intermediary, whereas another mixed group - Krajniacy - have a mostly Greater Polish character, with relatively minor Kashubian influences. They live in the region of Krajna. Two other ethnographic group in Northern Poland are Powi?lanie (whose homelands are the areas around Sztum, Kwidzy? and Malbork) and Kosznajdrzy.

?u?awy Wi?lane in North Poland used to be the homeland of Mennonites, who are considered to be either Dutch, German, or a group on their own.[82]

Kashubians can be divided into many subdivisions, such as the Slovincians. From the Early Middle Ages onwards, Pomerania was under strong Polish (especially Greater Polish and Cuiavian) influences, which led to the emergence of several intermediary ethnographic groups. Descended mainly from Greater Polish and Cuiavian settlers who mixed with Kashubians, are Kociewiacy in the region of Kociewie, located between Starogard Pomorski, Tczew, Gniew, ?wiecie and up to the outskirts of Gda?sk in the north. The main city in Eastern Pomerania has always been Gda?sk, located on the border between three regions: Kashubia to the west, Kociewie to the south, Prussia to the east.

Silesians

In the Early Middle Ages, Silesia was inhabited by several Lechitic tribes, known from written sources under their Latinised names. The most significant tribe (which ultimately gave its name to the region) were the Sleenzane (Slenzans; ?lanie) who lived in areas near modern Wroc?aw and along the ?l?za river, as well as near mount ?la.[83][84] The Opolini (Opolans; Opolanie) lived in lands near modern Opole.[83] The Dadodesani or Dedosize (Dyadosans; Dziadoszanie) lived in areas near modern G?ogów.[83] The Golensizi (Golensizians; Gol?szyce) dwelled near modern Racibórz, Cieszyn and Opawa. The Lupiglaa (G?ubczyce) probably lived on the G?ubczyce Plateau, near G?ubczyce. The Trebouane (Tryebovians; Trzebowianie), mentioned by the Prague Document (which describes the situation as of year 973 or earlier),[85] occupied areas near modern Legnica.[83] The Poborane (Bobrans; Bobrzanie) - mentioned by the same document - lived along the lower and middle course of the Bóbr river. The Psyovians (Psouane; Pszowianie) lived near Pszów, to the east of the Opolans and to the west of Kraków. Along the borderland between Lower Silesia and Lusatia, lived tribes related to modern Sorbs.

At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries (c. AD 1000), the total population of Silesia is estimated as around 250,000 people.[86][87] By the 2nd half of the 12th century (c. AD 1150-1200) the population increased to 330,000, still in vast majority Slavic-speakers. Following the German Ostsiedlung (c. AD 1350-1400), the population of Lower Silesia was around 2/3 Slavic and 1/3 German (according to estimates by Kokot, Karol Maleczynski and Tomasz Kamusella) while Upper Silesia remained 80% ethnically Polish, with the remaining 20% split mainly between Germans and Czechs. During the following centuries cultural Germanization gradually shifted the ethnic structure of Silesia, so that by the 20th century nearly all of Lower Silesia had a German-speaking majority. But Upper Silesia remained majority Polish-speaking. There have also been Moravian and Czech communities.

Prior to World War II, a third of Poland's population was composed of ethnic minorities. Following the war, however, Poland's minorities were mostly gone, due to the 1945 revision of borders, and the Holocaust. Most notably, the population of Jews in Poland, which formed the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe at about 3 million people, was almost completely annihilated by 1945.[96]